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End universal benefits, and reduce complexity
Kristian Niemietz
6 June 2013
2 comments

Apparently, the Labour Party is performing a U-turn on universal benefits, or at least on the Winter Fuel Payment. So far, the principle of universality has been seen as sacrosanct. Now, a removal...
Why does the government keep giving money to people like me?
Len Shackleton
26 March 2013
1 comment

The announcement that households with income up to £300,000 will be entitled to financial assistance with childcare under the government’s plans has raised a few eyebrows. But this...
Clegg is half right on universal old-age benefits
Kristian Niemietz
8 December 2011
2 comments

In very cautious terms, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has questioned the current set of universal benefits for the elderly. This is a major deviation from what has thus far been the coalition...
The seen and the unseen - benefits, and the taxes used to finance them
Philip Booth
3 March 2011
5 comments

This week, Pensions Minister Steve Webb MP described the views of the authors of Sharing the burden - How the older generation should suffer its share of the cuts as “loathsome”. It...
Pensioners should suffer their share of the cuts
Philip Booth
23 February 2011
35 comments

The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) was not particularly comprehensive. It will reduce spending as a proportion of national income to the levels we had in 2007 – hardly ambitious. By 2015...
Middle class beneficiaries of welfare payments are a drag on reform
Len Shackleton
17 May 2010
6 comments

This year I have been in a rather unusual demographic – both entitled (I didn’t claim it) to a winter fuel allowance of £250 as an over-60 and receiving a Child Trust Fund payment...

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